Hans Hartung, (born Sept. 21, 1904, Leipzig, Ger.—died Dec. 7, 1989, Antibes, Fr.), French painter of German origins, one of the leading European exponents of a completely abstract style of painting. He became particularly well known for his carefully composed, almost calligraphic arrangements of black lines on coloured backgrounds.

Hartung received conventional training at art academies in Leipzig and Dresden, but even as a young man he made inkblot abstractions. An early influence was the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, who also had eschewed recognizable objects